1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of systems on a chip (SOCs), and more particularly to security on SOCs and devices that employ SOCs.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of transistors that can be incorporated on a single semiconductor substrate “chip” continues to increase, the variety and complexity of functionality on the chip continues to increase as well. One way in which the available transistors can be used is to form an SOC. The SOC generally includes one or more processors and various other components (e.g. one or more memory controllers, various peripheral components, etc.).
Because SOCs incorporate significant functionality in a small form factor, and because SOCs can be made power efficient, SOCs are a popular device to include in portable electronic devices such a portable phones (cell phones), smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, etc. These portable electronic devices no have significant processing power and are increasingly being used for financial management and transaction, user communications other than voice (text, email, web browsing, etc.), streaming video, etc. Accordingly, SOCs may operate on private user data as well as data belonging to others (e.g. copyrighted audio, video, and still images). Accordingly, the security of the SOC and its ability to resist attacks meant to compromise secure data are becoming increasingly important features.